And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ” (Zechariah 13:9 ESV)
Fear Not… Then Be God’s People
I do not know exactly what God is doing to America lately. But we do not need to know. Because He is not first and foremost doing anything to America. He has something else in mind.
Because Zechariah is actually describing what God is doing to His people, the church. In recent years, we might have gotten our labels mixed up. Rather than call ourselves Christians who are Americans… our disposition has become to call ourselves Americans who are Christians. We do this inappropriately in many areas. We call ourselves Men or Women who are christians rather than Christian men or women. We call ourselves Farmers, or Doctors, or Teachers who are christians, rather than Christians who are farmers, or doctors, or teachers. We call ourselves Conservative or Liberal christians, rather than Christians who are conservative or liberal.
The heat and stress of our present culture is indeed like a refining fire. But God tells us that the purpose of that fire is to drive us to call repeatedly on His name, and to declare ourselves His people. His people first. His people primarily. His people definitively.
All those other labels are dross. The junk that gets burned away in a refining fire.
Fear Not… Then Be God’s People.